Instant Census Blog

How To Make Automated Text Messaging A Conversation

Chances are you’ve received at least one automated text message from a business. It may have been an appointment reminder, a survey soliciting customer feedback, or an alert or notification regarding important information. A majority of the time you probably assumed these messages were automated and that you were interacting with a “robot” of sorts, but it doesn’t have to be this way.

It is possible to make automated text messaging a personalized conversation for recipients. Check out these tips for creating humanized messages that will keep your recipients responding to messages and engaged in the conversation.

1.Use Recipients’ Names

With Instant Census, it’s possible to pipe recipients’ names into messages and questions. There are 2 ways of going about this:

You can ask a question at the beginning of a dialogue prompting recipients to provide their name and fill responses into a Custom Attribute field

If you already have recipients’ names, you can upload them as Custom Attributes to Instant Census

In either case, you can then pipe recipients’ names into future questions or messages. In order to do this, Instant Census users insert brackets containing the Custom Field name, such as “Name,” into the message or question. For example,

Great to meet you, [[Name]]! Is it ok if we ask you a few questions regarding your recent experience with our customer service team?

To your recipients, the message would appear as follows:

Great to meet you, Ashley! Is it ok if we ask you a few questions regarding your recent experience with our customer service team?

2. Use Conversational Words

Part of making recipients feel like they are having a conversation with your business through text message is setting the right tone. It’s been said that text messages are the closest form of actual human speech in the written word, so text with your recipients as if you were speaking with them in person.

For example, if you were sending recipients an appointment reminder message, you may say something like:

Hi Greg! We’re checking to see if you’re still able to make your appointment tomorrow, May 7th at 2:00PM at our Boston office. Please reply “yes” if you’re able to make it or “no” if you’d like to reschedule.

3. Use Personal Pronouns

Using words like “we,” “you,” “us,” etc. help your recipients feel a connection to your business and increases engagement. If you were to utilize personal pronouns in automated text messages, you may say something like:

We’re looking forward to seeing you at tomorrow’s Annual Women in Marketing Conference at the San Francisco Marriot Hotel! Remember to pick up your registration packet at the hotel front desk when you arrive. See you tomorrow!

4. Convey Feelings

Using words like “sorry” and “happy” to convey empathy help further enhance the human to human experience and show recipients you care about how they feel. If you’re using Instant Census to solicit customer feedback, some of your messages may look like:

We’re so sorry to hear you had a bad experience at our store! To make up for this, we’re happy to offer you 20% off your next purchase.

5. Don’t Use Weird Capitalization

Using capitalization inappropriately may make messages appear spammy and robotic. If you were sending alert style messages, instead of sending something like this:

YOUR ORDER #505 HAS BEEN SHIPPED AND WILL ARRIVE 5/10/16.

Try writing messages like:

Hi Jen! Your order #505 has been shipped and will arrive at its location on 5/10/16. Please contact orders@happyshop.com with any questions.

Want to learn more about using automated text messaging for business communications? Get in touch!

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Whatever your target audience, discover how easy it is to start connecting and get results.